Scavengers
by thyrandomninja
Summary: Post-war Doctor's adventures before "Rose". The TARDIS decides he has some business to attend to on Skaro, and, as usual, humans start getting in the way. T for threat, violence, non-gory death, possibly mild language later on
1. Prologue: Run

**At the request of dear friend BewareMyFrozenHeart, Eccleston's Doctor's adventures between "Day of the Doctor" and "Rose". I've decided to dedicate my writing this summer to it, and may make a series of 13 stories, fitting a series of the show itself, if this is received well. Enjoy.**

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**Scavengers**

Prologue: Run

The Last Great Time War; the final battle between the two most powerful races the universe had ever known. It had ended with the homeworld of the Time Lords, Gallifrey, burning to nothing, taking the last members of both species with it.

The humans were always the most ambitious species, and with rumours of a wealth of Dalek technology hidden on their homeworld, none could say they were surprised when humanity took to the cosmos with intent to land on Skaro.

It had turned out to be true that the Dalek world had not been completely annihilated, but there was precious little useful salvage. Elsa had already questioned the wisdom of going there many times, but never so greatly as the day she first met the man with no name.

Clinging desperately to a small, dishevelled relic of Dalek weaponry, she ran through the halls, following the instructions of her comrades through her earpiece.

"You need a left here and that should get you to the extraction point. Why are you breathing so hard? Have you been running the whole way?"

"Yes!" she grunted through gritted teeth. "Can't you hear that? That… buzzing? It's following me and has been catching up!"

"There's no buzzing; the sensors aren't picking up anything else down there with you."

She flew around the corner, taking the left as instructed. The path extended for ten metres before turning right again and she followed it, the buzzing getting louder all the while, slowly cohering into the low, flat whirr of an engine.

She ran face-first into a pair of sliding plate metal doors, shut fast. "Agh! Who the hell shut the doors!?" she yelled into the earpiece, holding her now wounded nose. There was no response from her commanding officers. "Guys! Open the doors!" She began to slam her fists into the metal sheets. "Let me out!" she shouted, no longer trying to contain her rising panic.

Her earpiece crackled violently, causing her to spin around and throw it to the floor. The buzzing increased, but was now accompanied by a voice.

"EEEEEEEEX… TEEERMIIINAAAkkkssssshhh…"

Apparently, humans weren't the only intelligent beings still left on Skaro.

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**Should be uploading the entire thing over this August and September, but I'll let you guys know if that prospect changes. First Chapter hopefully within a week.**

**Hope you're enjoying it so far.**

**Have a nice day, **

**ThyRandomNinja**


	2. Chapter 1: The Good Doctor

**First chapter! I struggled with the title for this one, but I reckon this is a nice placeholder. Take from it what you will ;)  
Enjoy the read.**

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Chapter 1: The Good Doctor

His head smacked into the console as the TARDIS lurched, the engine grinding harshly. He steadied himself before rubbing the injured area.

"What was that for!? Just came out of a regeneration and here you are, throwing me about like a ragdoll or something."

He began to walk about, stretching his muscles, before catching his reflection in one of the screens adorning the console.

"Oh, that's right! Regeneration!" He looked closer at the screen, frowning at the hazy reflection it showed him. "Not ginger." He pulled on a small tuft of hair to check the length. "Oh, come on, now. Really? My hair just keeps getting shorter! What was wrong with number eight's?"

He began patting himself up and down. "All… bodily… orga-" He stopped at his lungs and began feeling around his chest. He breathed in and out a few times, sticking his tongue out with each one. He held one breath in for a few seconds. "Two lungs? Yes! Two is normal."

"I think that's…" He looked down at his attire. "Not bad. I think I'll keep the jacket."

The engines groaned again and he was thrown back into the nearest set of railings.

"Would you stop that!? If you want to change as well, you can do it on your own time!"

The materialisation noise sounded as he picked himself up.

"Whoa, wait, hold on. What? I _definitely_ did not tell you to land!"

The noise ended slowly, the moaning central columns grinding to a stop.

"Well… you sit there and think about what you've done." He tapped a few controls on one of the screens before walking into one of the adjoining corridors. "You better let me know where we are the second I come back!"

* * *

When he returned, he wore the same leather jacket, a matching pair of black jeans, and a burgundy v-neck t-shirt.

"I do like this jacket." he mused, pulling down on the lapels. "Right, then!" he exclaimed, jumping down to the console again. "Let's see-" What he saw in the screen stopped him dead, and his voice became deathly quiet. "Why did you bring me here? Of all the places you could have stopped off at, you pick here!?"

He hung his head low, trying to avoid reading the information before him.

"We're leaving. We can't stay here."

He flipped a lever on the console and the pistons in the central column began to move, before stopping with a loud groan.

"Are you kidding me? Seriously!? No, we're not staying here!"

An urgent yellow light flashed, accompanied by a loud beeping.

"No! Stop this! I'm not interested!" Despite his protests, he turned the culprit screen towards him. After taking in the information on it, his expression dropped even further.

"This is never going to end, is it?" His voice dripped with melancholy.

The TARDIS made no noise or movement in response to the question.

"Fine." He pushed himself up from the console and walked to the doors.

He rested a hand on the door, reluctant to see the other side. Taking a deep breath, he pushed outwards and stepped onto the surface of Skaro. He had visited the wasteland the planet had become many times before, but this time it was merely a painful reminder of where he had just left. He knew what he was there for, why the TARDIS has chosen this location to stop, but he wanted nothing more than to forget the inhabitants of this world completely. Ultimately, though, it was his duty as a soldier of the Gallifreyan army to prevent any life form replacing their deadliest foe.

He had landed in the petrified forest. The stone trees stood as unwavering as they had always been, never aging or decaying, frozen in time. There was certain irony in the forest's unnatural state; despite the Time War, in the end, both planets had been decimated by their own inhabitants.

Walking through the forest was an eerie experience for anyone, but he paid it no heed; he was there for one reason, and wasn't going to waste time sightseeing. He wanted to leave as soon as he was able.

As soon as he stepped beyond the TARDIS' threshold, the doors swung shut and he knew that it would not look the same by the time he returned. A large grey complex stood over the trees in the distance. The Daleks had never been ones for artistic architecture, and this building was no exception. Built purely with its primary function in mind, it had no outside decoration, nor any indication as to what lay hidden inside.

As he neared the edifice, his hands began to feel empty. This was a Dalek compound; by any logic, he should have a weapon in his hands, ready to obliterate whatever was found inside. The soldier within him was uneasy, unused to tackling such a mission alone. It was something he would _need_ to get used to, he reminded himself; there was no choice on the matter anymore.

Coming to a set of doors, he drew his sonic screwdriver. He moved it down the seam between the doors, the red light glowing dimly. The doors slid open and a young human woman fell out backwards, letting out a small scream as she did so.

"Oh, for god's sake!" he said exasperatedly, staring at the woman lying on the floor.

She scrambled up, moving as much away from him as the door. Once she was on her feet, she pointed the detached Dalek laser arm at the strange man.

"Close them! Close the doors!" she stepped forward suddenly, in an attempt to urge him on. "Do it!"

He tilted his head at her, raising an eyebrow. "Are you seriously threatening me with that thing? It's not even plugged into anything - it needs a power source."

"JUST CLOSE THE BLEEDING DOORS!" The panic in her voice was rising again.

He raised his arm to the door and used the screwdriver to close them. "Happy now? The scary doors are shut."

Elsa visibly relaxed, lowering the broken weapon and loosening her limbs.

"Was that really so hard?"

"Considering that I do want to go in there, it's a little annoying, yeah!"

"Trust me, you do _not_ want to go in there. There is something very much alive on the other side of those doors."

"To be quite frank, if you managed to steal its arm, I don't think it's going to pose much of a problem."

"Says the man with a laser pointer." She pulled a gun from its holster on her hip. "At least I have an actual laser."

He pointed the screwdriver at the gun, deactivating its batteries. "Not anymore."

Elsa squinted dubiously at him before trying the trigger on a nearby rock. Nothing happened.

"What the hell did you do!? What will we do if we run into slythers?"

"Sonic technology. If I wanted to, I could have made that thing explode in your hands." He walked past Elsa, following the outer wall of the compound. "Oh, and about those slythers: just use the other gun hidden on the inside of your jacket."

Elsa almost did a double take. "Hold on; how did you know that?" She jogged to catch up with him. "And if you're so desperate to get inside the compound, where are you going?"

He whipped out the sonic screwdriver again, pressing the button and letting it buzz softly in front of her face.

"See that? Means there's more of you around here. Large ground base, lots of computers; data loggers, that sort of thing." He replaced the screwdriver in his pocket. "And it's on the other side of this building. Since you seem so keen to avoid going back inside, I thought you'd appreciate the fresh air route."

Elsa scoffed. "No, sorry buddy; I may not be the best at geography, but I came from that..."

She turned back and faltered. The man had been enough of a distraction for her to fail in noticing the area around them. She didn't recognise it at all.

_Surely Brian was leading me to the same entrance I'd come in by?_

The man sighed, drawing Elsa's attention back to him.

"If you're done babbling, would you like to get back to your comrades?"

"Oh no, buddy. Not so fast. Who the hell are you? We haven't encountered any other sentient living thing on this planet in the six months we've been here. You'll excuse me if I don't just magically trust you."

The man stopped, his expression souring. "I don't know." he responded blandly.

Elsa rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to eat up your pseudo-existential rubbish. What's your name?"

"I don't have one – I lost the right to it."

"Then what do I call you when the captain asks who the hell is in our quarantine cell?"

He looked menacingly into her eyes, grabbing her shoulder. "I told you; I don't have a name. Drop it!"

Elsa raised her hands in mock surrender. "Fine. Where are you from, then? I'm not just letting you off."

He had already begun moving onwards and she had to catch up with him again.

"Nowhere that exists anymore."

"Oh, come on!" Elsa complained as the pair rounded a corner. "You can't just show up, on Skaro, of all places, and expect whoever's there to just go along with it!"

"I don't. I _expect_ you to disappear. No-one should be here. Your people broke half a dozen laws even thinking of coming to this planet. I'm assuming that's your ground base?"

The building the man had indicated was obviously of a very different design to the simplistic, utilitarian Daleks' building. It was a temporary construction; one that could be dismantled and packed into a larger, star-faring ship within a few hours with the aid of a small squadron of maintenance robots.

Elsa sighed, resigning to the fact that she wasn't going to get any proper answers to her questions. "Yeah, that's it."

They descended the small rock ledge to the level of the building. It was only a single storey tall, with yellow and orange stripes painted over the outside. Airtight seals locked the doors shut, and a fingerprint scanner sat to the left of it.

Elsa pressed her left hand on the scanner and a green light flashed, allowing them access.

"Millennia since their advent, and you humans are still using fingerprint scanners. Don't you think there's a _reason_ everyone else stopped using them?"

"Would you shut up? And what do you mean 'you humans'? You're one of us... barely." The man snorted derisively, earning him an angry glare. "Really? No, you know what; I don't care what happens anymore – I just want you out of my hair."

The doors hissed as the airlock loosened and the doors swung inwards. The man followed as Elsa entered into a large white room with no furnishings and a glass wall opposite them. On the other side, rows of desks were filled with centrifuges, microscopes and all kinds of other analysis equipment.

Three men stood looking in on the room, all dressed in the same ragged combat gear as Elsa. Two of them were holding large assault rifles, ready to fire upon the entrants at a moment's notice. When they saw that Elsa was one of the pair, they relaxed their guard.

"Where the hell have you been, Green!?" asked the central, unarmed man. He was clearly the most senior of the group, judging by both his age and the way he conducted himself. "You have been offline for hours! And who the hell is that!?"

Elsa frowned at him. "Sir, I've been offline for a few minutes at most. My earpiece broke and got lost in the tunnels; Haggard was guiding me out."

The man to the left of the commanding officer was clearly confused. "Brian was with you! He's been offline for as long as you have!"

"We split up to cover more ground. He buzzed in my ear after an hour and said he'd gotten back to you."

The elder gentleman took charge again. "Can we debrief later? Right now, I want to know who this son-of-a-gun you've brought back is."

"Honestly, sir, I don't have a clue; he won't tell me anything, but he got me out of the tunnels in the end, and… well, hasn't tried to kill me yet."

"You don't need to know who I am-" the strange man started, before being cut off by the commander.

"You can keep your mouth shut until I tell you otherwise. Carter, let Green in." He nodded at the man on his right, who moved to a small control panel and tapped a flat red button.

Two of the glass panels in the wall slid apart, revealing a doorway about twice the width and height of a human. Stretched out between the receding panels was a shimmering film of translucent blue. Both of the pair in the quarantine room walked towards it, Elsa twisting one half of a large metal bracelet. At the click of the bracelet locking into its new position, the film enveloped her and allowed her to pass into the adjoining room.

The senior officer pulled a laser, identical to Elsa's from his jacket and pointed it at the mysterious man.

"You're staying right where I can keep an easy eye on you." Carter pressed the button again and the panels slid shut.

The senior officer took the dismembered laser arm from Elsa and handed it to the third man in the room. "Ashford, take this down to Hanson and add it to the pile; that's a good specimen. Green, you come with me for debriefing. Carter, keep an eye on our guest." He turned to face the man still standing in the white room. "If he makes any unexpected movement, don't hesitate to blow a hole in his head."

All three of the lesser soldiers gave their acknowledgment and Ashford and the commander left the room, quickly followed by Elsa.

James Ashford turned off from the main corridor into the laboratories and Elsa followed the older man into his makeshift office: two chairs and a simple desk with a captain's computer sitting on it.

"Run me through again what happened since you and Haggard went into the compound."

* * *

It was an hour before the captain returned, no longer with Elsa in tow. Carter almost made a salute, before remembering there was no need to. The commander motioned for the younger soldier to join him, and the young man ambled over to the glass plate separating them from their unexpected company.

"I am Captain William Barroden, the leader of this project. State your name, rank, and intention."

The man stood up from his seated position at the opposite wall and wandered towards the concealed exit.

"None, none,"

He pulled the sonic screwdriver from his jacket pocket and activated it, pointing it at the doors. The panels slid apart again, and the barrier between them stretched out for a short time before deactivating under the screwdriver's influence. The film dissolved, leaving a clear path into the next room.

"And stopping you from doing anything stupid... er." he stated calmly, lowering his arm.

The two men raised pistols against him, Barroden looking ready to fire at the movement of a single muscle.

"Drop the device and step back into the quarantine room!" he ordered.

The man pressed the screwdriver's button again without raising it, and Barroden pulled his trigger. Nothing came out of the gun, the trigger simply clicking uselessly. The younger man looked to be on the verge of panic.

"Who in God's name are you?" Barroden asked incredulously, not lowering his weapon.

"A man who ended a war... and would rather not see another."

"Explain to me exactly why we're supposed to trust you."

"Because I know exactly what you're doing here, and I know what happens if you continue with it." The man stepped over the threshold, provoking Barroden into firing again, but with the same result.

"What information do you have and where did you get it from?"

The man replaced the screwdriver in his pocket.

"To be perfectly honest, you aren't in any position to be interrogating me, but I'm deciding to be nice." He patted his jacket where the screwdriver was hidden. "My sonic screwdriver has spent the last hour analysing every piece of equipment in this building - very good range for an older model. You've been looking at any piece of Dalek technology you could get your hands on - not a lot, but according to the captain's log, you're pretty hopeful about that building outside."

"How did you... only I have any access to the captain's log."

"Until you put a deadlock on it, anyone with sonic technology has access. And this mission is leading your species to a very bad place."

"The way I see it, either you're human, in which case you are my inferior, or you are not, in which case our business is no concern of yours. Either way, you do not have the right to judge our actions on this planet."

The man stepped closer to Barroden, leaning in to his face, bearing an expression of contempt.

"I have _every_ right." he growled, almost whispering. "I know and have seen more of the Daleks than your species ever has and I am not going to let you take their recently-vacated place as scourge of the universe."

"Just because we appreciate their technological advancement does not mean we will become them! If you truly believe that, I consider you the most naïve man I have ever had the misfortune to meet."

"And I consider _you_ to be rather dangerously uneducated on the subject of Dalek weaponry."

A voice echoed from the corridor. "We are."

The woman who'd spoken was older than most of the soldiers, but still younger than the captain. Her dark-coloured ponytail was beginning to grey and she wore a long, white lab coat. Everyone in the room turned to meet her gaze as she and Elsa entered the room.

"I'm sorry, sir, but, as much as I respect your authority, we know very little about the Daleks and their technology."

"That's why we're here, doctor." The strange man twitched slightly at the title. "Our mission is to find _out_ what Dalek technology is about and bring as much as we can back."

"I know our objective, but you can't pretend we're here by right. By the very definition of our goal, we know very little about the Daleks. Who knows what they've got locked away on this planet?"

"Finally, someone with a little sense! You had no problems hunting until today. Then, you make one journey into that building and come out a man down."

"The one building that actually has a good amount of technology hidden away in it." Doctor Hanson agreed.

The commander's nostrils flared. "You are not to reveal sensitive information like that to our captive!"

"Normally, no I wouldn't. However, given the fact that he's managed to bypass our security system so easily," She nodded at the deactivated energy barrier. "I'm guessing that if he wanted it, we would already be dead."

The man pointed an approving finger at the woman. "That's perfectly true. My ship has already scanned the building and after we rescue Mr Haggard down there, I'm going to convince you to leave this planet one way or another."

"You are not the one in charge of this operation!" the captain bellowed.

"No, but I am the one in charge of _my_ operation, and due to that, you are not taking any Dalek technology off of this planet."

"And what makes you such an expert on Daleks?"

The man's face darkened as he stepped towards the captain. "Have you ever met a Dalek, William? Have you heard the hatred and disgust it holds for every living thing? Have you seen a _planet_ burning because they just fancied it? Other villains have motives, a history, a reason for the things they do, but a Dalek just _hates_. Before you question my judgment, know that I am _the_ expert on Daleks."

For the first time in her life as a soldier, Elsa saw the captain falter. Something flickered across his eyes; doubt, or fear, or a mixture of both, she didn't know.

"I have not met a Dalek myself, but I have heard tales of their armies and that makes learning as much as we can about them a very appealing goal."

Silence hung over the room as the mysterious man glared at the captain, silently daring him to say more. After a few seconds of discomfort, Elsa piped up.

"I haven't met one, but I heard one; in those tunnels. There are Daleks down there right now and just the sound of its voice was… terrifying."

"There was no Dalek, Elsa Green." Elsa was taken aback by the man's use of her first name; she hadn't told him while they were walking to the base. "There are no more Daleks, and considering the fact that human weaponry, even of this millennium, is about as useful as wet spaghetti against a Dalek, you should pray to whatever god will take you that you are wrong."

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**Thanks for reading :) Please let me know what you think of it so far, and, of course, any amount of constructive criticism is always welcome.**

**Have a nice day,**

**TRN**


	3. Chapter 2: Underworld

Chapter 2: Underworld

"If we haven't got anything better to do, how about we go to collect poor Mr Haggard? I'm sure he'd be grateful for the assistance." the man continued.

"Only after you've proven that you are to be trusted!" Captain Barroden huffed. "You've still given us no information or credentials as to your identity."

"Well, then it's a good thing I have this." The man reached into a second pocket and produced a small leather cardholder, flicking it open as he did so. "Shadow Proclamation. As I've already told Miss Green over there, you broke through quite a few laws just getting here, let alone the whole tech-grab stunt you're trying to pull." He subtly glanced in Doctor Hanson's direction.

Barroden's fierce eyes relented. "Oh, blast it all! How'd the Shadow Proclamation get wind of this?"

The man replaced the cardholder in his pocket. "Believe it or not, humans aren't the most stealthy species; you bumble around - make a lot of noise."

The captain looked about ready to rip the man's head off, but knew better than to antagonise a Shadow Proclamation agent.

"Fine; I'll let you take charge, but if you do anything that puts my men and women's lives on the line, I won't hesitate to feed you to whatever's in that building in little cubes of meat! I'll inform High Command of what's happened. Follow the Shadow Agent's orders for now."

Barroden left for his office and Carter seemed to skulk out of the room after him. The "Shadow Agent" approached Doctor Hanson, extending a hand in greeting.

"That paper was blank." she said questioningly, as she accepted the handshake.

His voice dropped to a whisper. "I thought you'd see through it, Gertrude; you seem to be of a higher mental calibre than your captain." He pulled the paper from his pocket again to show her. "Psychic paper. Shows people what you want them to see. This is a weaker variant than I'd like, so it doesn't work so well on the more intelligent among us; if you're lucky, it works on computer scanners too."

Elsa walked over the pair, a frown on her face. "What was that? You showed him a blank piece of paper and that's all the proof that's needed?"

"Blank?" He waved the paper across Elsa's face. "You don't see anything on here?"

"What? No! It's a blank sheet of paper."

"I'm surprised you could see through it. Looks like you two are actually going to be useful." He gave Elsa a sideways look as he replaced the psychic paper once more and began making his way to the laboratory. "Before we head out to help poor old Brian, let's take a look at what you have found, shall we?"

Elsa tapped Gertrude on the arm. "What was that all about? Surprised about what?"

"I think that was his way of saying he didn't think you were that smart…"

A small, annoyed noise escaped Elsa's mouth. "Rude!" she said defiantly.

* * *

"Most of this isn't even Dalek tech!" The man rifled through the assorted trinkets scattered around the labs, looking for anything that could be useful. He picked up a small handheld device, before tossing it over his shoulder. "This thing? Thal hairdryer. I don't even know why I was worried about you lot; you aren't doing a very good job."

"That explains a lot of the data I got from it." Gertrude mused, staring irritatedly at the rejected gadget.

The man's eyes perked up as he dug out a particular find. "Ah! Ahahaha!" He brandished Elsa's Dalek arm at the pair of women. "This is good! This will work!"

"What are you doing?" Elsa half-yelled, following the man as he bounded out of the room.

"What _we're_ doing is tracking down Brian." He scanned the object with the sonic screwdriver, pausing occasionally to glance into the little red light. "Daleks have a very specific technological signal – one we can use to track down other examples of it. If Brian is smart, he'll either be at that collection of technology, or on his way back from there. Either way, we're going to find him."

He looked at the screwdriver one more time, before slipping the Dalek arm into an outer pocket, letting it disappear completely. Elsa stared at the pocket, which was clearly not even half the size it needed to be to fit the detached weapon inside.

"Bigger on the inside." the man explained, having caught her expression.

The three male soldiers were already back in the first room and the man beamed at them.

"Perfect; everyone's here." He pointed to one of the younger men. "James, I'm calling you James – I like first names – you're coming with Elsa and I into that building; bring along your rifles if you really want, but don't shoot anything unless I tell you to."

He turned to face the remaining three. "The rest of you stay here. Alex, we want you on map duty." He pulled Carter over to a small computer on a side-desk and used the sonic screwdriver to upload a map of the entire complex onto the screen, directly from the TARDIS' databanks. "On that screen will appear a small red dot. You're tracking this." He held up the screwdriver. "And where this is, we are."

"You." The man pointed at Doctor Hanson. "You're actually clever; take this." He threw the psychic paper at her and she caught it clumsily, then he turned to Captain Barroden. "And you can stay here because I just don't like you."

The captain looked displeased by the orders, but didn't argue with the man's apparent authority. James took the electronic earpiece from his belt and hooked it around his ear as Elsa picked up a spare one from a small pile by Carter's computer.

"So." The man raised the screwdriver so that it was level with his face, and pressed the button. "Let's go find Brian."

* * *

The doors slid open under the influence of the sonic screwdriver, revealing the grey walls and copper-plated floors, one of the few remnants of the time when the Daleks were earth-bound. The man strode onwards in complete confidence, following the red glow of his screwdriver, the others slightly more hesitant of the shadowed halls beyond.

He fiddled with the button some more and passed it over the room, before checking the data it had collected.

"Definitely an old Dalek building – no surprise there. Doesn't look like it's been used for anything other than storage since before the Time War. Elsa, catch me up on what happened last time you were here." the man requested, already forging ahead. "Our best chance of getting Brian – and ourselves, for that matter – out alive is if I know everything that happened."

Elsa huffed slightly as she brought the memory to the forefront of her mind. "It was a scout mission. Brian and I were supposed to be investigating for Dalek technology, that's all. A couple of probes had been sent in before us, so we had a general map of the area."

The man stopped temporarily to check the directions on his screwdriver, before taking them to the left.

"Once we figured we were deep enough into the building, we split up to cover more ground."

"Which I'm assuming old William didn't like?"

"Not one bit. We didn't get a complaint from him when we decided upon it, but he says we'd gone offline before then."

"Oh, that's odd…" the agent mused, sounding as if he hadn't been paying attention.

James gripped his rifle tighter. "What is it?"

"I'm picking up something else – not just Dalek tech." The man frowned.

"You said we'd got some Thal stuff in the lab; it might just be more of that." Elsa suggested.

"No, I'd recognise that. This is something n- oh!" The man frowned at the screwdriver. "Oh, that's very interesting." He turned to face the other two. "This signal includes some patterns identical to the Daleks', but it's different, it's been altered by some outside source."

Elsa raised an eyebrow. "What does that mean? Are the Daleks… changing? Evolving?"

"It means… that you aren't the only ones here looking for Dalek technology… and that whoever this mystery signal is has already succeeded."

* * *

Doctor Hanson had been confused as to why she'd been given the psychic paper. She knew the man wasn't who he said he was, the paper itself had made that much very clear, but somehow she knew that she had to trust him; at the very least, Brian Haggard's life depended on him.

As soon as the trio had left for the building, she had excused herself and retreated to the laboratory. Upon closing the door, she had retrieved the paper from the pocket she had placed it in and opened the leather casing.

She watched as black inky letters curled their way across the paper, the strange man's instructions to her writing themselves out.

_Captain isn't telling you everything. Check log._

She knew she wasn't privy to a lot of the information about this expedition – Captain Barroden was in charge, after all – but this message all but confirmed her suspicions of the Human Parliament having a more sinister motive for the mission.

The real question now was how to carry out her order. While any computer outlet was available to any crewmember, the Captain never logged into the network using any computer other than the one in his private office. Even if she could get in there, what were the chances that she'd find the account still logged in? The only way to achieve any of the steps required would be to have the Captain's ID card with her.

She looked at the psychic paper again, desperately hoping that more information would reveal itself, but the previous message had dissolved with nothing to replace it. She sighed as she folded the cardholder back over and replaced it in her pocket.

Exiting the laboratory, she walked quietly back to the entry hall, careful not to alert the other two to her return. Seeing them already in conversation, she retreated back down the corridor and turned off towards the captain's room. Just having a look at the office itself couldn't hurt.

Looking at the handle, she saw the keycard lock, just like there was on every room in the building. Barely any of them were ever active, because there was no-one they needed to hide anything from until today, but the captain's room was always locked.

Glancing to either side, Gertrude turned the handle and pushed inwards. As expected, the door didn't budge. She thought back to her conversation with the agent, hoping for a clue in his words.

_Would the paper work?_ He'd mentioned that the psychic paper could fool computers, but she wasn't sure if it included keycard locks. She withdrew the cardholder again, unfolding it to look at the alien device within. It was still blank.

_Shows people what you want them to see_, she remembered. She hesitated for a second, trying to correctly form the image in her mind, before running it down the lock. Longer than usual passed between the swipe and the machine's acknowledgement, and Gertrude nearly panicked when the green light didn't immediately blink on.

Finally, the lock clicked and the light flashed green, and she pushed in again, swinging the door slowly open.

* * *

James held his rifle at eye-level as the next door was forced open by the sonic screwdriver's influence, keeping it aimed steadily down the newly revealed hallway, the headlight attached to it lighting their way forward.

"You realise you don't need to go gun-first through every door, right?" the man said impatiently.

"Better safe than sorry." Elsa said, drawing her own gun. "We're going to need everything we've got if we run into Daleks again."

"There _are_ no Daleks." the man said defiantly. "They all died."

"You weren't here! I heard a Dalek; what other species shouts 'exterminate' at you?"

"You heard _wrong_!" The man whirled on his feet, pointing the screwdriver menacingly at Elsa. "There are no more Daleks. They are _gone_! The Time War ended with every living thing involved dying!"

"Oh, and how would you know that? I know a Dalek when I hear one and that was a Dalek!"

"_Because I killed them!_" the man exploded. "I killed everything with the press of a single button! I killed every Dalek and Time Lord in existence!"

Elsa was bewildered. Everyone knew what the end result of the Time War had been – the death of billions upon billions of intelligent beings. What no-one knew was how it had happened.

"But… the only species with access to something that powerful are the Daleks and Time Lords themselves. Everyone assumed it was done from within. You're… a survivor?"

"The _only_ survivor. I made sure there was nothing else that would survive, so don't you dare tell me that a Dalek got away. I watched them burn!"

"Then you're a Time Lord?" James interrupted. "The Shadow Proclamation never has Time Lord agents."

"No, they don't, but you thick-as-soup humans don't know what's good for you, so, naturally, you still need me to run around cleaning up after everything you do wrong! Now, if we're done here, I've got to clean up this fine mess you've got yourselves into."

James stepped back, pulling his rifle to shoulder height. "We only trusted you because the Captain trusts the Shadow Proclamation."

"Your captain is an idiot and a liar. He-"

"Shut up." Elsa said abruptly, eyes widening.

The time lord was still ready to shout her down, but registered the shift in the tone of her voice and stayed silent, eyes still angrily fixed on her face.

"What?" he asked quietly.

Her voice dripped to a whisper. "That... buzzing. It's the same thing I heard before the Dalek showed up last time."

James nodded. "I've never met one, but I've seen and heard enough of them to know that's what they sound like."

"What buzzing?" the time lord asked. "There's no noise here except us."

Elsa turned around, looking down a corridor that wound away from their current path.

"It's coming from down there."

The two soldiers aimed their weapons down the corridor, backing away and out of the line of sight. The time lord released the button on his screwdriver and pressed it again, reading the signals emanating out of its small red diode.

"There is no buzzing." he pondered.

James pressed a finger to his earpiece. "We have audio contact with a Dalek. Repeat: audio contact with Dalek. Carter?"

"Comms are dead - just like last time, according to the captain." Elsa said, turning to face the opposite direction to her teammate.

The time lord turned to Elsa, his eyes shifting between the screwdriver and her face. When he pointed the screwdriver to her earpiece, a loud whine shot into her ear, causing her to yell out and rip the device from her ear. The time lord took it form her hand and followed up by taking James' from his ear. He made a show of short-circuiting them both.

"What buzzing?"

"What the hell are you doing - that's our only hope of contacting anyone back at the base!"

"Hey!" the time lord snapped, stunning the pair into bewildered silence with a raised finger. "No buzzing."

Elsa was the first to recover. "Then… what _was_ it?"

"I'm pretty sure there's only one species that can manage something like that, and if I'm right, that is _very_ bad news for everyone on this planet."

* * *

**Next chapter probably up next weekend. Hope you'r enjoying it so far, and please review if you have the time :)**

**Have a nice day,**

**TRN**


	4. Chapter 3: Divine Hosts

Chapter 3: Divine Hosts

Gertrude scrolled through her captain's communications with the outside world. The latest ones had really only been a catalogue of their findings so far, with little or no response from High Command. Even most of the earliest messages didn't actually have any substantial information in them, except these ones included reports on the ground condition of the planet they were on - nothing unexpected, as far as she could tell.

She kept asking herself why the strange man had asked her to do this, glancing back at the psychic paper, which lay open on the desk next to her, hoping for some further instruction. None came, and she continued on her journey back into the very first communications received by the commanding officer.

Finally, she reached the very first document he had received from High Command concerning this mission, labelled "Operation BAC-185 Summary". She recognised the three-letter-three-digit shorthand for this mission, but all communications the rest of the team had received also included a capital alpha on the end, meaning it was only the first part of the larger operation.

The lack of an alpha in the shorthand here implied that the captain knew the layout for the entire operation. Normally, the crew for a mission were informed of at least how much their commander knew, if not given the same level of clearance. This would never have worried the doctor if she hadn't met the man with the psychic paper, but now anything was suspicious.

She opened the message and found herself faced with a title page claiming that the document contained alpha, beta and gamma components. It also stated that the delta component was not attached. Gertrude bit her upper lip. If the newcomer was worried about the beta and gamma components, what must delta have hidden in it?

She knew the entire contents of the alpha document, so scrolled straight down to beta. The bright red warning "LEVEL 3 CLEARANCE" was printed across the top of the page. Gertrude herself only had level six clearance, and she could have sworn the captain only had level five – one rank higher. If that wasn't the case, then what was a level three agent doing on a survey and collect mission?

She kept reading, and soon found what High Command was planning to do with the Dalek technology they recovered. The beta document only explained what research teams would be assigned to investigating the new acquisitions, but the gamma document, emblazoned with the words "LEVEL 2 CLEARANCE", told her exactly why she had been instructed to infiltrate the captain's computer.

It outlined plans to convert Dalek technology into forms that humans could use. Everything humans had seen of the Daleks had been compiled, analysed and condensed into a single plan to replicate as much of it as possible. High Command were hoping to build their own Daleks. A conceptual hive mind would be designed around controlling an army, relying on fear as much as any other weapon to fight any possible opponent.

Maybe the man was right. Maybe humanity would become the next scourge of the universe – they certainly _could_ if gamma stage went fully operational. She thought back to when she had opened the message: "DELTA COMPONENT REDACTED". Anything building on top of a hive mind Dalek army would scare anyone.

Gertrude's head shot up from the screen as she heard footsteps making their way down the corridor. If she was caught snooping around like this, she was reasonably sure the captain could legally abandon her on this planet.

She clicked a few buttons and e-mailed herself a copy of the entire BAC-185 document, before closing everything she'd opened on the computer and getting out of the chair. Looking around, there was nowhere she could hide; the room was too bare. Her only hope was that the footsteps belonged to anyone but the captain, but those hopes were dashed as the door handle began to turn.

* * *

"What species? Are they the ones who altered the Dalek signal you found?"

"That's the last thing we need, but unfortunately, it seems like the most likely scenario…"

James was starting to sweat, and swallowed before speaking. "Who are they? What's doing this to us?"

"Form a triangle – everyone back-to-back-to-back. Keep your torches on and for the love of every god your species has invented, if you see _anything_ move, don't you dare blink."

The two soldiers did as instructed, each bringing their weapon to eye-level.

"Don't blink? Why? What _is_ this thing?" Elsa asked, already trying to control her blinking.

"Weeping Angels. If I'm right, then Brian's already dead, and we _need_ to get out of here; now."

The humans simultaneously lowered their weapons and turned to the man, scepticism and incredulity etched across their faces.

"Weeping Angels?" Elsa almost laughed. "They're a scary bedtime story told to kids. Moving statues that steal people in the night? They were made up, like yetis or vampires."

"Unfortunately, all three of those creatures are real. There's a reason your race makes them into stories and legends – it's much less terrifying than the real thing if you make up some pattern or criteria for who it kills." The man toggled the button on his screwdriver a few times. "We're close – we might get to see what it is they've managed so far, if we're lucky."

"I thought you said we needed to get out."

"We do, but if we're careful and keep our eyes open, we might be able to get some information on why they're here and just how dangerous they are. Very useful information if we want to get rid of them."

James interrupted before they could be led further into the complex. "Alright, but why would they try to kill us? In the stories, they only kill the unjust – they're portrayed as servants of God or something."

"Like I said, much less scary than the real thing. In reality, they're just like any other species – they want to survive. They feed by displacing people through space and time and use the energy generated from that transportation. The only reason they actually kill is because they can transmit their victim's voice through nearby electronic devices. They've been trying to lure or trap you this entire time."

"But what about the buzzing and the Dalek I heard?" Elsa was back in position, keeping a fresh eye out for any movement.

"I'm not sure how it really works, but if there are sufficient Dalek parts down here, they may have been able to synthesize a generic Dalek voice to project instead. We need to move – keep facing outwards and follow me."

The man began to walk down one of the corridors, ensuring the light from his screwdriver was illuminating as much of the way in front of him as possible.

"If they know we're here, why haven't they come to find us?" James inquired.

"They can't track us without the headsets." He held up the soldiers' communications devices. "So long as they're deactivated, we're invisible to them. Unless they hear us, of course."

The screwdriver led the trio to a locked door, and the man ran the device down its centre, forcing it to slide open. The room on the other side was too large for the screwdriver's little red bulb to light up, so he scanned the area for an electronic light source and managed to activate a large central light in the ceiling.

"What is it?" Elsa whispered over her shoulder, keeping her eyes fixed on the corridor.

"It's exactly what you've been looking for."

The corridor led into a Dalek control centre, originally from the neutronic war, if the man's knowledge on Dalek history was accurate. Abandoned and half-destroyed Dalek shells littered the floor, ranging from the earliest, grounded designs to some resembling those he'd fought against in the Time War.

James spun around, following the man's gaze. "Ha! That is beautiful!"

He wandered towards the nearest Dalek shell, half of the spherical studs fallen out and the gun arm mangled beyond recognition.

"Hey! Get back in the circle, you idiot!" The time lord pulled James back in line. "There are still angels about."

Elsa spoke over her shoulder again, forcing herself to keep facing back into the corridor. "I thought you said there was a mixed signal – the Daleks and the angels."

"There is, but not here. The mixed signal goes deeper – this is just an outlier base, away from the central hub."

James turned around again. "So if the angels are further in, why are we still tiptoeing around like this?"

"The mixed signal is further in. There's only a partial angel signal – I can't extrapolate the full one, so we don't _know_" He forced James to look outwards again. "Where the angels themselves are."

The time lord led the trio into the room, his eyes and screwdriver scanning across every shell, control panel and dismembered limb.

"Not one life sign. We're the first living things to enter this room in years, at least, possibly centuries. Well, except maybe the angels; the sonic never quite got a handle on them – part of the whole wibbly time shift thing they do."

Elsa furrowed her brow in disappointment. "Wibbly time thing? You're a time lord – surely you can explain it better than that!"

The man sighed. "I'll work on it, alright? Can we jus- oh… oh, that's not good."

"What is it? If you want us to keep looking away from you, you've got to start explaining these things."

"Four regenerations since I've seen one of them. Very bad news if the angels get their hands on it."

Before the time lord stood one of the only complete shells in the room. Thick, bulky armour adorned it in its entirety, a single massive arm in the very centre of its midsection.

Elsa's arm flapped across the time lord's upper arm, trying to attract his attention. "Um… you, man, time lord, thing, whatever."

"Yes, yes, I know, explaining. It-"

"No. I… I think I see something."

The man's expression hardened. "Keep watching it. Don't blink."

"I'm trying not to, but I'm only human; I've got to blink eventually."

James raised his rifle to his shoulders, keenly staring at his designated portion of the room. Elsa was looking back at the corridor they'd come through, and, hidden in the shadows, just within the light's reach, was a face. Jagged teeth and small beady eyes gently faded in and out of view as the shadows flitted around it.

"My eyes are stinging." Elsa strained. "Sorry." She blinked, crushing her eyelids together as hard and fast as she could before opening them again.

"_Holy shit_!" she exclaimed, stumbling backwards.

In the time she'd taken to blink, the angel had jumped from the corridor and halfway across the room, bearing its teeth and raising its arms, presumably in an attempt to grab her as soon as possible.

The man guessed at what had happened. "Yeah, they do that. Just keep an eye on it and both of you follow me. We're going to leave through a door I've got in view."

The trio started their way gingerly towards the door.

"I've got to blink again." Elsa warned, an edge of panic creeping its way into her voice.

This time, the angel managed to get within a few metres of the small gang, and Elsa sucked in a gasp, her breathing rate accelerating.

"Stay calm. We'll turn around; James will be facing the angel, Elsa the door. James, tell Elsa when she can stop looking at the angel."

They began edging around in a circle, until James could see a stone arm in the corner of his eye.

"Alright, I've got it."

Elsa breathed a sigh of relief and quickly rubbed her eyes before turning to face the door. They started walking again, closing in on the door.

James stepped back onto a shard of Dalek sphere, his foot slipping into the strange man's, who turned towards the angel, but he was too late. James had taken his eyes away to steady himself on the newly-uneven ground and the angel took the time between James looking away and the time lord turning toward it to lunge forward, grabbing James' arm.

The space around him warped, bending for a second as he disappeared, sent hurtling back through time. The man gritted his teeth as he glimpsed the disappearance before catching the angel's arm in his sightline.

"What? What happened?" Elsa was on the verge of panic again.

"It got him; sent him back to… whenever it pleases. On Skaro, he's as good as dead." He sucked in a deep breath, standing as tall as he could. "Just keep an eye out. Take the screwdriver, find the button and run it down the door."

He reached behind him and slipped the screwdriver into Elsa's hand, who raised it to the door, pressed the small grey button and moved it down the seam between the two halves of the door. They slid open to reveal two more angels on the other side of it, both covering their faces with their hands.

Elsa jumped back. "There are two more. Oh my god, what do we do? What do we do?"

"You keep calm, and don't blink. If you blink, you are dead, and then I'm dead. I'd really rather not be, so I'd be grateful if you could keep your eyes open."

"I told you – only human!"

"One eye at a time, dammit! You can wink, can't you?"

"Okay… okay, okay, I'm calm." Elsa followed the man's instructions, winking her eyes one after the other. "How do we escape?"

* * *

"Hanson! What in hell do you think you're doing here?" The captain stood opposite the doctor in his working quarters, anger burrowing into her eyes from his.

Gertrude stood in silence, trying both to think of an answer that wouldn't get her killed and to maintain some pretence of control over the situation.

"How did you get in here? That shadow agent – did he help you?"

Gertrude raised a hand, pointing at the computer. "B A C, one eight five. That's this mission's designation code." She ran out of words. _Damn_, she thought.

"Tell me how you got in." The captain's patience ran thin at the best of times, and this was hardly the best of times.

Gertrude sighed as she reached into her pocket and retrieved the psychic paper. She opened it and showed the captain the leather wallet's contents. In the captain's eyes, scrawled across the paper were the words 'screw you, captain'.

"Shows people whatever the holder wants. Works on computers too, which is how I got in."

"Give me that!" The captain reached out to snatch the psychic paper from her hand, but she pulled back, snapping the wallet shut.

"I've read the mission summary you received; alpha, beta and gamma. I knew before we came here that we were breaking all sorts of Shadow Proclamation mandates, but the contents of that message are… that's an abomination! A Dalek hive mind? Who agreed to that!?"

The captain and doctor stood in opposition for a few moments before he responded. "It's not my position to agree or disagree. I follow orders – that is my job, and it is also your job."

"And I'm following the orders of the highest authority on this planet, which you should be too. And you _certainly_ shouldn't be following the orders you received in regards to this mission."

Silence fell over the room again, both people thinking through as many scenarios as they could to gain the upper hand in the standoff.

"Then… maybe I should follow the agent's orders too. It's not like it's my plan – I'm only a level two agent… we should get back. You never know when our search party may be returning."

Gertrude held Captain Barroden's gaze temporarily, trying to gauge his trustworthiness. Eventually, she dropped her eyes and moved passed him, aiming to make her way back to Alex Carter.

"Yes. Yes, I rather think we should."

* * *

**I don't know how long this will end up being, but I think it's starting to get juicier about now. As always, please leave a review, and Thanks for reading**

**Have a nice day,**

**TRN**


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